Two questions:

1)-How much do you wish to spend?

2)How where will you use it??

If for boating events and or racing..You will need a minumum of 10X OPTICAL zoom.

If you want photo enlargements over 8x10, an over 4 megapixl camera should be considered.

As RonP stated..do not even discuss digital zoom since it degrades the photo quality..

I have an Olympus C-750 (10X) with a 1.7 teleconverter which takes it out to about 600mm (35mm equivilent) telephoto. It is a 4.2mp with sound movie mode..

$$599 camera-$150 teleconverter..

Thanks for the info guys!! I ended up getting a Nikon Coolpix 4300. Its a cool little camera. So far it takes awesome shots. I bought a printer to print pictures too.

Nikon D100 6.1 pic. interchangeable lenses ,memory cards to take 1000's of pic before downloading. look at it.

I wanted to ask the same question, BUT HELL I'M MORE CONFUSED NOW

This guys seems to have the best reviews.
Steve

I bought an Olympus 3030 back in June 2000 has been great and able to do photo quality 20 x 30 prints with it. Would probably buy the Olympus 5060 next.